


The Aurora Zone

by MsHydeStylinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Almost forgot the northern lights, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Aurora Borealis, Baker Harry, Blind Date, Blow Jobs, Dom/sub Undertones, Enemies to Lovers, Finland (Country), Hotel Kakslauttanen, Lapland, Lawyer Louis, M/M, Nipple Play, Rimming, Sauna boners, Sharing a Bed, Smut, accidental roommates, and last but not least, and of course there is, captain niall, one of them tops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-04-05 03:44:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19040458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsHydeStylinson/pseuds/MsHydeStylinson
Summary: “Hi, I’m Harry.” The guy introduced himself and Louis just grabbed his hand by instinct. It was big and warm when pressed against his own. His handshake was firm, and Louis just dumbly repeated his action.“Louis.” Louis replied and then quickly wrenched his hand out from the grip of Harry’s claw. He hoisted himself up a bit more and glared at him suspiciously as this Harry guy was peeling off his outerwear like it was just a normal thing to do. Well, sure it was, but why the hell was he doing it in Louis’ room?“I don’t mean to sound rude, but what the fuck are you doing in my room?” Louis finally aired the question that had been circling in his mind this entire time now.***Or the one where Harry is busy crossing off his bucket list while Louis is busy falling for the guy he's supposed to hate.Prompt 117. Hotel Kakslauttanen, Finland





	The Aurora Zone

**Author's Note:**

> Many times I've thought about writing some kind of travel-fic and when I found this challenge, I knew this was my opportunity to do it. What i didn’t know then was that it would end up going in the complete opposite direction than I had imagined in my mind's eye. So, instead of palm trees, sunshine and tropics this story will take you to Lapland during the winter and polar night. Polar night, or Kaamos as it is called in Finland, is the time of the year when the sun never rises over the horizon. It can last from just a day up to weeks; the farther north you go, the longer it lasts. 
> 
> Thanks for the mods running this fic challenge. You did an excellent job! 
> 
> And thank you for my wonderful friend and beta [Jennie](http://canadianlarrie.tumblr.com) . Without your editing and all the suggestions this story could have fallen much flatter. You have the magical skill to see what the story needs and you make me work hard to accomplish the vision before adding your own final touches to the text. Team work as its finest, I would say. Hope I can work with you in the future too! xxx
> 
> One more confession... despite being a Finn, I have never actually been to Lapland. If there are any mistakes, despite my research, they are solely mine.  
> The places Harry and Louis visit are all real locations, I encourage you all to google them all, especially the Santa Park and igloo resorts in the Aurora Zone. Lapland appears to be a truly a magical place.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always welcome. But when leaving constructive feedback, please, choose your words kindly.
> 
> Happy reading! 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is not real, never happened, complete fiction, etc. Please do not take any of this seriously, as it is all fake. Please do not translate or repost on any other site without my permission.

 

  **Day 1**

 

“Well mate, this is your check-in.” Niall exclaimed happily, pointing his index finger towards the row of airline counters where a group of passengers was already queuing.

“Ok…?” Louis leered at the big, ominous blue and white Finnair signage in front of them with narrowed eyes. Louis had never flown with that airline but if he recalled correctly this whole thing was already going in the wrong direction.

“And here’s your bag. Everything you’ll need for your holiday has been specially packed for you, by yours truly.” Niall added with a wink and handed Louis the massive duffel bag he had been dragging through the terminal. This whole thing was solely Niall’s idea and Louis had no intent to help him carry it around. If Niall wasn’t clever enough to use the baggage cart, it was his problem, not Louis’.

Well, until now.

“What the hell have you packed in here? Rocks?” Louis rolled his eyes as he took the bag from an impishly grinning Niall.

“No, it’s just clothes and other essentials.” Niall answered nonchalantly. He was holding a bag in his hands that Louis’ hadn’t noticed until now, and swinging it back and forth with such speed that Louis couldn’t get a proper look at it. Instead, he focused on the other one laying on the floor in front of him.

“Looks like I have enough luggage for a North Pole expedition.” Louis joked when he mentally weighed the bag again. He wanted to open it and see what it had swallowed, but he wasn’t going to give Niall the satisfaction of doing it. And also, he knew Niall was an even worse packer than him, so the possibility of the contents of the bag exploding in the terminal would be too high a risk to take.

Niall just shrugged, and Louis became more suspicious. How the hell could he have let Niall talk him into doing this in the first place? A ‘mystery destination holiday’, for fuck's sake. And Louis hated surprises -- all kinds of surprises and he was sure this trip was going to be a disaster even before it had officially started.

Louis sighed and snatched his bag, or at least tried to, and plodded towards the check-in counter and settled at the end of the very slowly moving queue. A couple in front of him was speaking a foreign language, so eavesdropping to entertain himself while waiting to pick up his boarding pass wasn’t in the cards. Instead, he took out his phone and started to scroll through his Instagram. Then he quickly snapped a selfie and nodded with acceptance before he posted it with a caption using just the airplane, sunglasses and sun emoji. Although, the only thing he knew for certain that he was going to fly. He wasn’t so sure about the sun anymore.

His second clue after noticing the Finnair logos were the monitors over the check-in counters displaying in bold letters ‘Helsinki’. It definitely didn’t sound like he was going to some paradise island close to the equator, but he still kept his hopes up. It might just be a place where he would transfer planes before heading to his real destination.

In fact, it turned out he actually was right about transferring, but it made it all even worse.

“Where the fuck is Ivalo...?” Louis mumbled when he finally got both his boarding passes and walked back to find Niall. He had no idea, but the chances that he would be sipping exotic drinks in a tiki bar for the next few days seemed very slim right now.

“Oh, you might need this too.” Niall smirked when he saw Louis’ gloomy face and threw the large plastic bag he had been holding towards Louis, who barely had time to react before the soft bag hit him in the stomach.

“Umpf—” Louis whined mutedly and managed not to drop the package on the floor. He slowly opened it and pulled out the thickest winter coat he had ever seen.

“I’m not going.” Louis decided when he stared at the coat with visible disgust on his face. “Nope.”

“Don’t be a wimp, Louis.” Niall laughed. “And your bag is already on the way.”

“I could go back there and tell them I didn’t pack it by myself and they would get it back in a minute. I wouldn’t even be lying.” Louis stated confidently. There was one thing for sure, and it was that he wasn’t going to travel anywhere he needed clothes like the coat he was holding. Not a fucking chance!

“Yeah, but they would probably also arrest you. But whatever you decide. I kind of knew you couldn’t handle this type of trip.” Niall replied with an annoying dismissive tone.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Louis retorted and stared back at his friend with narrowed eyes.

“No, nothing.” Niall shrugged and pulled out his phone.

“Spill it.”

“Just this badass attitude you have—” Niall started and then just focused on his fucking phone again, thumb sliding across the screen as he was scrolling. Louis’ blood was boiling while he waited for his friend to speak again, but it didn’t happen.

“And…?” Louis posed the question between gritted teeth.

“You’re not exactly the adventurous type, Lou.” Niall sighed trying to keep his face straight. “I knew you wouldn’t have the balls to go on a surprise trip like this.”

“Yes, I do! I’m so going to prove it to you.” Louis hissed to Niall whose eyes immediately started to sparkle. _Fuck_ , Louis cursed inwardly. How the hell had he fallen into this shithole Niall had dug? It was such a rookie mistake but Louis’ pride didn’t give him a chance to back out anymore and Niall knew it.

“Enjoy your holidays!” Niall winked and turned to walk away.

“Fuck you, Horan!” Louis yelled, and some people around him gave him disapproving looks. Didn’t they have anything else to do, Louis thought.

“See you later, Tomlinson!” Niall laughed waving his hand as a goodbye.

“Hey, wait a second.” Louis shouted after Niall when something suddenly crossed his mind. “How do I know where I should go after landing?”

“I’ll send you an email later with all the details in it.”

“But you’re not sending me to the North Pole, are you?” Louis joked again.

“Of course not. I would never send you somewhere that cold.” Niall said, and Louis sighed relievedly. The coat had only been there to tease him, and Louis could just hug Niall for that even if he hated practical jokes. Or hated, if they were aimed at him, more precisely.

“Thanks, lad, I knew you wouldn’t be that big of a dick.” Louis smiled relievedly. “So, where is this Ivalo place then? Never heard of it before.”

“Oh, it’s in Lapland!” Niall said cheerily and walked away before Louis had time to really process his words.

This would be the last time Louis would let Niall do anything for him.

Ever.

***

Louis peeked out through the tiny airplane window trying to decipher where he had just landed, but all he could see was the darkness, even though it was just early afternoon. The next thing he noticed was the enormous piles of snow that blanketed everything, including the miniature sized building Louis assumed was the terminal.

Fucking brilliant...

Finally, the seat belt sign was switched off and people around him jumped up from their seats immediately. Louis didn’t hurry, as he was trapped behind the other passengers anyway because of his window seat. Secondly, he definitely didn’t feel the same enthusiasm as his fellow passengers. The coldness from Siberia or wherever the fuck he was that encapsulated the plane’s cabin from the recently opened door didn’t make it any more tempting to go outside. Just when he realised he was the only one left, he sighed and lazily got up. He enrobed himself with the down-filled coat Niall had gifted him with and took his small backpack from the overhead compartment and sauntered towards the door.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” he muttered the moment he stepped out of the plane when the cold sacked him boldly in the face. Louis pulled the hood over his head and shoved his hands into the pockets to keep them warm. Then he made a dash for it and ran inside the building in front of him.

Ok, at least it was warm in here, Louis thought when he looked around. It wasn’t difficult to find the baggage claim area since the departures in terminal 3 at Heathrow was probably five times bigger than this whole airport. The advantage, and the only good thing Louis was able to figure right now, was that they didn’t have to wait for their bags for more than a few minutes.

 _What the fuck am I doing here?_ Louis asked himself after returning from a quick trip to the loo and found himself standing outside the terminal freezing his bollocks off. _Right, Niall_ . Louis was going to kill him immediately when he was back in London. Or should he say _if_ he makes it back to London? He was most likely going to get hypothermia and die before this day was even over. At least by now, he had retrieved a thick beanie and mittens from his bag, but they would probably just postpone his death by a couple of hours.

After realising he had no idea what he should do, or even where was he going, he dug his phone out of his pocket and switched the flight mode off. When his data kicked in, he checked his email and for once, Niall had been able to do something he had promised and sent him information about his holiday. If you could call it that…

Anyway, now he had to find transportation of some kind to get to his hotel.

“Excuse me.” Louis asked the guy who seemed to be working at the airport. “Could you tell me where I can find the bus that goes to Ka—” Louis tried to figure out how the hell he was supposed to pronounce the word illuminating on his screen.

“Kak—” Louis started again and then just gave up. It was just impossible. “Here.” He said instead and showed the name from his mobile.

“Oh, Kakslauttanen.” The guy sounded delighted as he effortlessly pronounced the most difficult word Louis had ever seen. “Just go straight ahead and the bus is waiting on the right-hand side. Can you see it?” The guy with the thick Scandinavian accent pointed his finger towards a big vehicle parked nearby.

“Yeah, ok. Thanks, mate.” Louis said before briskly walking to the bus, putting his bag in the storage compartment and hopped in.

After buying a ticket from the driver and once again trying to tell him his destination with poor success, he plopped himself down on the empty seat in the back and sighed. He was exhausted. If this whole fucking “holiday in a meat locker” wasn’t enough, for some reason Niall had decided to book him on a flight with overnight transit in Helsinki. So, Louis had ended up sleeping in some weird capsule like sleep pod at the airport. It had been surprisingly comfortable, but yet Louis couldn’t say that he had a good and restful sleep last night.

Once again he cursed Niall, but even more, he cursed himself. He still couldn’t believe how the hell he had ended up here in the first place.

***

_Five weeks earlier_

“Shitshitshit.” Louis mumbled while he was crawling on the floor of his office and tried to collect the stack of paper he accidentally swept off his desk when he had been stretching his hand towards his every morning lifeline; a cup of tea. The only good thing about this situation was the mug was still miraculously sitting on the desk undisturbed. The papers, however, were all spread around the small room that served as his office. Fortunately, they were not damaged.

It was enough that he had to put the pages back into the right order before he had to rush to his meeting on the other side of the city, so Louis was really grateful he didn’t have to start printing all of them again. He was already in a hurry and the only thing that would save him was if, by the grace of God herself, the London traffic would be flowing smoothly today, but Louis really didn’t have high hopes for that.

He finally got the papers collected and without even bothering to get up, he started to go through them to see if had everything like he thought he would.

“What the hell are you doing down there?” Louis was still sitting on the floor, legs crossed checking the papers when a voice from the door startled him and caused him to hit the back of his head on the edge of his wooden office desk making him curse even more.

“Having a fucking picnic! What does it look like?” Louis snarled, still rubbing his head and climbed up while he swept the invisible dust away from his dark blue trousers. He tapped the pile of papers against the table and angrily shoved them into the file where they belonged. He had to go through them once again in the Uber, but everything seemed to be there, and it had to be enough now.

“Wow! Looks like someone’s grumpy this morning!” Niall, one of Louis’ best friends who happens to be his boss too, laughed as he leaned against the doorframe, with a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. Louis just scowled at him and tossed his laptop along with the papers into his backpack before zipping it shut. Perhaps Niall was used to his moods in the mornings and cheerfully carried on chatting despite Louis’ dark glances towards him.

“I know exactly what you need!” Niall stated next when he followed every move Louis made with his innocent-looking blue eyes. “You need a holiday!”

“I don’t do holidays.” Louis snorted. He was too busy to even consider taking a holiday, especially now when his mind was preoccupied on his upcoming meeting. But Louis’ answer just seemed to assure Niall about the sheer brilliance of his idea.

“I know, and that’s exactly why you need one.” Niall beamed at him like he had just been enlightened by Buddha himself.

“How does it help if I stay home and start to climb the walls after a day?” Louis huffed, taking his suit jacket from the hanger and hung it up.

”It’s up to you whether you’re gonna spend your holiday in your flat and get bored, or are you going to let Uncle Niall take care of everything so you can just relax and enjoy your holiday in an exotic place.” Niall pictured the scenery.

”For one, stop calling yourself Uncle Niall when your nephew isn’t anywhere near you. And even if he is, just save it for him only. Seriously.” Louis rolled his eyes. Because it was just… No. “Secondly, what kind of exotic place are we talking about?” Louis must admit that a holiday on the beach didn’t sound so bad after all when compared to a rainy week in London in late November.

”I know the perfect place, just leave it all to me. All you have to do is go.” Niall enthusiastically clapped his hands together, with a wide smile plastered on his face.

“But—"

”Take it as an early Christmas present.” Niall interrupted Louis quickly.

”I hate Christmas.” Louis said dryly.

”Then it’s your birthday pressie.” Niall ignored him rubbing his hands together.

“Look, Niall—” Louis really didn’t have time for this now. “I really have to go now. We’ll talk about this later. Don’t do anything daft.” Louis warned and rushed out of the door, forgetting the whole conversation the moment sat in the backseat of the taxi, believing Niall did too.

He was so wrong.

***

“Hotelli Kakslauttanen!” The driver informed when the bus stopped in the carport in front of the hotel lobby. After Louis had collected his luggage, he walked inside the large log frame building. There were a few people scattered around the lobby but the reception counter itself was empty, so Louis walked straight there.

”Hi,” he greeted politely. ”I should have a reservation here under name Tomlinson… Louis.” He added his first name soon after.

”Yes, let me look up the information, sir.” The receptionist replied with a smile as she typed something into the computer. ”Alright, here it is.”

”Looks like you are staying in the West Village.” The receptionist continued. After seeing Louis’ confused look, she hurried to explain. ”Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Tomlinson. Our Hotel is divided into two different villages; the East and the West. And at the moment we are in the East Village. Shortly, a shuttle bus will come to pick you up and take you to the other village. You can sit down and wait in the lobby for a few minutes. You’ll be informed when your driver has arrived.”

“Ok, thanks.” Louis said and stepped away giving the lady one more smile. He picked up his bag and tucked it next to the wall so it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way. Louis himself had sat enough during the last several hours so he didn’t mind stretching his legs for a bit. He strolled over to the information board and to kill the time he started to read the pamphlets pinned to it. Skiing, dog sleds, saunas, swimming in an ice hole.

 _Swimming in ice hole…? Who the hell would even consider doing it?_ Even the thought of it caused goosebumps to rise on Louis’ body and reading the weather forecast didn’t help at all for his chills. It was -15°C outside, no wonder it felt as though he had been stuck in a freezer. Tomorrow’s temperature looked a bit warmer, but the extra 5 degrees didn’t warm him right now. Nor tomorrow either. There was no way he was going to leave the hotel room. And what was he even going to do, if the times for sunrise and sunsets were correct and the length of the daylight was a big fat zero? Like what the fuck?

One more reason to hate Niall. Before Louis had time to think of different ways to kill his friend, the car arrived, and they drove the short distance to the West Village. It didn’t take more than twenty minutes before Louis found himself outside of the building, his bags loaded on a wooden sled and a map to his accommodation in his hand.

Louis let out a long sigh and started to push the wooden sled through snow. It slid easier than Louis had thought, and he had to admit, it was quite a clever way to move the luggage in this kind of weather. He didn’t have to walk more than a couple of minutes when he arrived at a clearing, scattered with some evergreens. There were five rows of glass igloos, maybe ten igloos in each row, built in neat lines. It was quiet everywhere, just a couple of people walking in the distance when Louis looked around quite amazed. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was beautiful and for a moment, Louis couldn’t help but stop and stare at the view emerging in front of him.

Some of the glass domes were already illuminated and the gleaming lights combined with the white snow created a much-needed brightness into the eternal night. It was something Louis had never seen before. He was tempted to take out his phone and immortalise the moment but knowing the picture wouldn’t do it justice anyway, he gave up the idea and carried on.

Louis was now walking slowly. The unexpected scenery had made him almost forget the biting frost as he curiously eyed the igloos he passed by while searching for his own accommodation. He was already in the lane where his igloo should be. The sled easily traversed on the snow while Louis pushed it, peering at the numbers on the doors. 26… 27… 28.

Ok, this was it.

Louis pushed the sled up on to the snow pile next to the doorway and parked it there. He lifted his bags and dug around his pockets to find the keys. The doorway was so narrow that Louis had to drop the bags on the snow, so he was able to unlock the door. Once it was unlocked, he lifted the bags over the high doorstep and jumped in after doing it. He closed the door behind him, flipped the lights on and took in his surroundings.

The room was small. To the left, there was a knee-high luggage stand and that’s where Louis lifted his bags onto. He opened the door on the right and found a tiny loo behind it. No shower, however, he noticed. Louis closed the door again and took a better look at the rest of the room. There was a big bed in front of him, centred below the dome ceiling. The bed had odd zebra patterned sheets and Louis couldn’t think of even one single reason why anyone would put zebra linens in a place like this. Maybe at some safari lodge in Kenya, but here in the middle of the snowy arctic landscape, it just looked arse backward.

Louis removed his coat and tossed it atop his luggage and wrestled his boots off. Despite the horrendous bedding, Louis walked next to the bed and plopped himself down in the middle of it. He stared straight up and as he had seen from the outside, all the outer surfaces were made from glass. Louis was able to see all around just lying in the bed and when the lights were on, everyone else was probably able to see inside too. Fortunately, there were piles of snow all around, so it wasn’t likely he would see someone peeking in. At least Louis hoped so. It would be a bit creepy waking up in the middle of the night and realising someone is staring at him from the other side of the glass. When his gaze searched more closely, he found short curtains tucked away in each ‘corner’. He climbed up and pulled them closed.

It felt much better now. When he was laying on the bed, he could still see out, but anyone closer than a couple of metres couldn’t see him. Now he had his privacy, but still had no idea what to do then. He still had two more hours before his early dinner which apparently was included in the price. Louis already regretted not buying any snacks because he was already starving. He hadn’t eaten since the morning and then during the flight just one lousy cup of complimentary blueberry juice. And now he was stuck here in the middle of nowhere without being able to buy anything to eat.

Of course, there wasn’t a TV in the igloo or even a radio. Just the serenity of nature and silence all around. Perhaps it was the reason why so many people came here, but Louis wasn’t one of those. It was all too quiet and right now, he would have preferred being bored in his flat in London than here. Why the hell had he sent him here anyway? Niall knew how much he hated being cold and that’s all he was surrounded by now.

And this stupid glass bubble he had to stay in for the next three nights.

After sending Niall a hate fueled fire and brimstone message, Louis opened his Spotify and put on a playlist that wouldn’t bore him to death. And to prevent himself from developing hypothermia, he decided to assail his luggage and see if Niall had packed anything useful. He unzipped the bag and started to pull out items one by one. A pair of thermal trousers, thermal underwear, woolen socks, a knitted jumper…

“What the fuck—?” Louis said aloud when he realised he was holding a box of condoms. Who the fuck did Niall think he was going to hook up with here? Using Grindr would probably be useless and to be honest, Louis wasn’t a big fan of it anyway. When Louis messaged Niall asking if he knew something about the lube and condoms in his bag, all he got back was a winky emoji. He definitely needed new friends.

Preferably sooner than later.

***

Somehow Louis managed to kill time until dinner. He forced himself back out into the frozen tundra that led the way to the restaurant near the reception and dined among the various groups of people; families, friends, couples, and felt pretty uncomfortable being there by himself. Not that anyone would have even paid attention to him, but Louis just didn’t like eating alone in restaurants.  During lunch breaks at work -- when he had the time to take one -- he preferred to take out and eat at his desk rather than eating in if it was just him.

The food served at the hotel resort restaurant had been alright, nothing to write home about. Louis felt sated and was currently spread out on the bed trying to digest his meal. It was pitch black outside and he was barely able to keep his eyes open any longer. His was in that trippy state between sleep and wakefulness when he heard someone twist a key in the lock and push the door open, almost causing Louis’ heart to leap right out of his chest. He jumped up just in time to witness someone step inside Louis’ igloo.

“What the fuck? What are you doing?!” Louis shouted when the stranger pushed through the low door. His outburst didn’t stop the guy from entering, or from stomping the snow out of the treads in his boots. When he was fully inside and straightened himself upright, Louis realised that he knew him.

And no, not in _that_ way.

Never in a million years. Yeah, the guy was proper fit, or used to be anyway, but now he was covered up with a thick layer of clothing. But no, his looks weren’t the problem. It was the guy himself. As long as he was quiet, everything was good. When he had started to speak, Louis wanted to stuff cotton in his ears, and when he hadn’t been able to do that during their one and only encounter last December, Louis had just walked away after a couple of minutes. Looking back now, Niall must have extended the invitation to friends and family because he’s one hundred percent sure this guy wasn’t his co-worker. Louis vaguely remembers the guy rambling on about his godchildren and baking cakes. God, that had been so _dreadful_.

And why _that guy_ was suddenly here now, Louis had no clue. But he had a suspicion it might have something to do with his so-called best friend, who happens to be friends with this guy too. Louis couldn’t remember the guy’s name, but he recalled Niall always called him ‘H’. Louis was sure he had heard it once or twice, but he never paid attention to it. It might have been Henry or something.

As if the guy had read Louis’ mind, he stepped closer and stretched out his hand.

“Hi, I’m Harry.” The guy introduced himself and Louis just grabbed his hand by instinct. It was big and warm when pressed against his own. His handshake was firm, and Louis just dumbly repeated his action.

“Louis.” Louis replied and then quickly wrenched his hand out from the grip of Harry’s claw. He hoisted himself up a bit more and glared at him suspiciously as this Harry guy was peeling off his outerwear like it was just a normal thing to do. Well, sure it was, but why the hell was he doing it in Louis’ room?

“I don’t mean to sound rude mate, but what the fuck are you doing in my room?” Louis finally aired the question that had been circling in his mind this entire time now.  

“Umm— I’m your... ummm— roommate?” Harry nervously bit his lower lip as he cautiously looked at Louis from under his lashes.

“You’re my what now—?” Louis halted his movement in the middle and just stared at Harry agape. He just didn’t say he was Louis’—

“Roommate.” Harry repeated firmly this time. Louis just kept staring at him, understanding nothing of what was going on, when Harry suddenly let out a jittery laugh.

“He, erm, didn’t tell you I was coming?” Harry laughed, nervously scratching the back of his head. “Niall, I mean.”

“No. Niall didn’t tell me anything.” Louis sighed, closing his eyes as he rubbed the palms of his hands up and down his face. He was going to fucking kill Niall more than once because there was no way that one time would be nearly enough to pay him back. Not even fucking close.  

“Oh…” The worry was back in Harry’s big, green eyes and he didn’t know what to do next. He just stood there awkwardly, biting his Robin’s egg blue-painted thumbnail this time.

“Oh, indeed.” Louis huffed annoyed.

“Do you want me to leave?” Harry asked timidly after the silence that had fallen into the room started to feel palpable. He looked so sad and small standing amidst the darkness in the igloo and even if Louis’ first instinct had been to throw him out, he just couldn’t do it now.

“No.” He sighed eventually. “It’s late and honestly, I’m knackered, and all I want to do now is sleep. Let’s deal with this mess tomorrow. Ok?”

“K. Yeah.” The last thing Louis heard before he fell asleep was a quiet whisper saying, “I’m sorry.”

 

**Day 2**

The next morning Louis woke up to someone quietly shuffling around the small room. Brief flashes from the night before appeared in his mind as he laid under the duvet, refusing to open his eyes. Not just for the new day ahead, but also the anticipation of having to be stuck with this Harry-guy in an Arctic igloo. What a fucking nightmare.

Eventually, Louis gave in to the inevitable with a sigh and lowered the duvet down just enough so that he was able to peek above it. The first thing he saw was a pert arse bent towards him while its owner took something out of the bag that was perched on the bench by the window. It was a very nice bum, Louis must admit. Even if he didn’t like the guy, he gave credit where credit was due. Suddenly Harry turned around and Louis barely had time to withdraw his eyes from that magnificent arse.

“Good morning, Louis!” Harry chirped, smiling widely when he noticed Louis wasn’t asleep anymore. The cheeriness of his voice alone was already enough to annoy Louis. There was definitely something wrong with anyone who could be so perky before the sun had even properly risen.

“Morning.” Louis grunted and carefully threw his legs off the bed and hoisted himself up into a seated position. He sat on the edge of the bed and tried to gather enough courage to walk the short distance to the loo. The floor felt icy under his bare feet and if Louis hadn’t mentioned it before, he hated the cold from the bottom of his heart. Just simply hated it.

“Here.” Something soft thumped on the bed next to Louis. He stared at the ball awhile, a questioning frown plastered across his face before he glanced back towards Harry. He continued to unpack his bag, setting the neat piles of clothes on the bench like nothing happened. But Louis was quite positive the item didn’t drop from the ceiling either.

After a few moments, his curiosity won and he picked it up from the folds of the bedding it had disappeared into. Behind all the softness Louis felt a slight roughness under his touch, but his sleepy brain still didn’t figure out what the lump actually was.

“It’s a pair of woollen socks.” Harry eventually sighed when he had witnessed Louis’ reaction, or lack of it, long enough. “The floor feels a bit chilly.” He added as an explanation.

“Yeah. K. Thanks.” Louis replied shortly and pulled the socks apart before slipping them on. As the pleasant warmth swathed his feet again, he got up with a loud sigh. If it had been up to him, he most likely would have spent the next several minutes staring at the floor with drowsy eyes, but his bladder disagreed with that plan and he unwillingly dragged himself into the loo.

After finishing his morning business, Louis shuffled back to the room, grabbed his bag and pulled it in tow next to the bed. Some of his clothes were already strewn about, but Louis really didn’t know what he was even looking for, so it actually didn’t matter.

“Are you hungry?” Louis heard Harry’s low voice behind him and lazily turned his head towards him. Harry was now sitting on the bench with his knees up and pressed to his chest as he peered at Louis.

“Yeah.” Louis nodded. He actually was hungry but hadn’t even realised it before Harry poised the question. “Breakfast should be included, right?”

“It is. I already had mine.” Harry announced happily. Alright, Louis may not have been the politest to Harry for the short time he had been here but wasn’t it just basic manners that you would wait for your roommate to join you? Or even ask if they wanted to?

“Awesome.” Louis replied sourly. “Maybe I’ll just go by myself then.”

Harry released a little giggle, but after seeing Louis’ scowl he hurried to add “Breakfast is already over. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“What? The sun hasn’t even come up yet and you’re telling me it’s already over? How bloody early do they close it?”

“You’ve heard of Arctic Nights, yeah?” Harry grinned standing up.

“Of course, I have.” Louis retorted. Did Harry really think he was some thick uneducated person who had never paid attention in geography class to what goes on in the rest of the world?

“There’s your answer then.”

Faint ‘oh’ escaped Louis’ lips when he finally realised what Harry was trying to say and felt completely dumb while looking outside through the window. It wasn’t pitch dark, more like dawn where the sun was just about to climb over the horizon in any minute, but then at the last moment decided to stay slightly below.

“Brought you something though.”

“Huh…?”

“From the brekkie.” Harry cleared his saying. There was a plate sitting on the bench Louis that hadn’t noticed before Harry picked it up and passed to Louis. “I brought some traditional Karelian rice pies with egg butter, yogurt and an apple.”

Louis took them in, slightly scrunching his nose at the offering but took the plate anyway and carefully set it on the bed.

“Would you like to have tea, too? I have a thermos filled with boiled water.” When Louis nodded, Harry poured the water in the cup and Louis dipped the tea bag Harry gave him into the hot liquid. There was no table in the room, so Louis placed the cup of brewing tea on the floor next to the bed and started to eat the pies Harry had brought him. They didn’t look so appetizing but the taste wasn’t so bad after all. The egg butter had sounded really weird, but it paired well with the pie.

Louis had time to eat both of the pies and his yogurt while waiting for his tea to brew and was finally sitting on the bench by the window with the cup in his hands as he took the first sip. Even though Harry had managed to bring him some milk to add to his tea, the taste still wasn’t anywhere near his usual Yorkshire Tea. He winced slightly, but it was still better than nothing. He needed his tea to get his day started.

Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine that kept him subdued but as soon as it hit his system, Louis started to remember why, and especially with who, he was stuck with in this white winter madness. The very same place where he has to manage to not commit homicide over the next two days and nights. Louis had a hunch they were going to be long days. Very, _very_ long, he added inwardly when he saw Harry going back through his already irritatingly organised clothes and personal effects. He picked up one pile moving it like two nanometres to the left and then straightened himself up and giving a satisfied look at the ”relocated” pile as if he had just created world peace.

To avoid having his head explode from witnessing that, Louis decided to go for it and ask Harry about his plans. Louis really, really wasn’t into doing anything with Harry, but at the same time, he was trapped in this fucking glass dome in the middle of eternal night. He needed to find something to do, although he was confident his ”something” wouldn’t include Harry. But before Louis had time to air his question, Harry pulled out a piece of paper with writing on the front and back of it.

”What’s that?” Louis wondered aloud unwittingly.

“It’s a list of things I want to experience during this trip.” Harry replied without taking his eyes out of the paper.

“A list?”

”Yes, a list.” Harry repeated, his eyes aimed towards Louis this time before he turned to scrutinise the bloody paper again.

“I’m probably gonna regret asking this, but why did you make a list?”

“Why wouldn’t I? This is a once in a lifetime experience with very limited time. I did the research beforehand about activities around here and now I’ll just execute them.” Harry’s explanation kinda made sense, but there was no way Louis would admit that.

“What about spontaneity?” He asked instead tilting his head questioningly.  

“What do you mean?” Harry asked with narrowed eyes.

“Having fun? Doing things just on a whim.” Louis shrugged sipping his tea.

“Yeah. And do you realise it’s possible to have fun even if you have pre-planned?” There was a hint of irritation audible in Harry’s voice. Good. Louis hadn’t lost his touch after all.

“Sure. Organized fun is the best form of fun.” Louis rolled his eyes.

“Yeah.” Harry straightened himself and stretched his muscles like a cat. He knew Louis’ eyes were following his graceful moves and when he finally stopped, he glanced at Louis over his shoulder saying “Do whatever you want to do. I’m going to go skiing, just like I had planned it. See you later.”

“Wait—” Louis finally cried out when it looked like Harry was really going to leave him behind.

“Yes…?” Harry turned to look at him, cocking his brow.

“Ok.” Louis sighed.

Harry stared at him quietly and waited for Louis to carry on.

“You won. I’m coming with you.” Louis sighed.

“I didn’t know it was a competition, but you’re welcome.” Harry smiled smugly.

Not a competition. My arse, Louis thought. Why was the bastard smirking that way if he didn’t think he had already won? Louis ignored him and tried to locate and gather his clothes that had been scattered around the room.

“Hope you have decent clothes for outdoor activities.”

“Of course, I do.” Louis retorted. He was almost positive he had seen thick trousers in his bag. Or Niall’s, technically speaking. He did the packing, so now Louis just had to trust that when he walked next to the duffel bag he would find what he was looking for. Otherwise, he would look like an idiot in front of Harry. “Just give me five minutes and I’ll be ready.”

***

Maybe it took a bit more than five minutes for Louis to get ready, but in less than half an hour they were sitting in Harry’s freezing cold rental car on their way to the nearest ski centre. To keep his thoughts away from freezing to death, Louis decided to give in and ask Harry something about him.

“So, Harry.” He started, “what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a baker.” Harry answered, a smile plastered across his face and seemingly delighted by Louis’ question.

“A baker.” Louis nodded approvingly, but couldn’t help adding “Do you actually bake, or are you just selling the pastries to old ladies and smiling nicely?”

“Of course, I bake. I just said _I’m a baker_. Didn’t I?” Harry said sounding offended. His nose was scrunched up as if he were trying to hold back a few choice words he wanted to say, but was too polite to do it.

“Ok, ok. I believe you. No need to get your knickers in a twist.”

“I’m not.”

“No, of course not.” Louis deadpanned.

Harry bit his lip, and Louis was quite sure he was trying to prevent himself from laughing.

“What do you do, Louis?”

“I’m a lawyer at Niall’s record company.”

“Oh, are you a real lawyer, or one of those people who transcribe the depositions?” Harry asked with a shit-eating grin on his face. 

“Touché, Harry.” Louis huffed out, slightly impressed with Harry’s ability to banter.

“No but really, that sounds fascinating. Niall might have talked about you.” Harry said, his eyes strictly on the road, but his cheeks suddenly looked flushed and rosy. Hmm, that was interesting. 

“What did he say about me?” Louis questioned, unsure as to how much this practical stranger knows about him.

“Umm, nothing much really, just you’re a great friend to him, you’re 27 and that you work for him.”

“Well, yeah.” Louis shrugged vaguely. Perhaps the enthusiasm was lacking from his answer right now but honestly, he really loved his job. Since he was a teenager he had always pictured his dream job having something to do with the music industry. At first, it may have been as an artist, then later when he was already in law school, as a lawyer. He occasionally participated in the writing sessions with Liam, one of the producers of the company. It was fun and he and Liam made a good songwriting team together, but mainly he did his job behind the scenes nowadays. It was his way of helping the newbies of the industry as well as the more experienced ones who joined their team. He had heard horror stories about record companies and their rip off contracts, but fortunately, Niall wasn’t the one wanting those things. Of course, this was about business after all, but still, there was a certain line between being assertive and being an asshole.

Instead, he wanted to bore a bit deeper as to their mystery pairing. He had a hunch that blushing Harry knew more than he let on. “Did you know I was coming here? As your… roommate?”

If Harry’s reaction gave anything away, Louis’ question clearly caught him off guard. The car made a gentle swerve to the right, but Harry quickly corrected the car back on course.

“Umm… I— Mmmm. No…?”

“Are you asking me?”

“No…?” He rubbed his nose nervously. “Look… I might have asked him if he knew anyone who could come here with me.”

“As your roommate though? Why?”

“I didn’t want to come alone.” Harry confessed after a short pause, and Louis couldn’t blame him for it.

“You had your trip booked already?”

“Yeah.” Harry said quietly. “This was Niall’s present for us.”

“Us? Me and you?”

“Me and my fiancé.” Harry corrected.

“You’re engaged?”

“No, not anymore, obviously.” Harry huffed. “But I was, and Niall gave this trip to us as our engagement present.”

“Oh.” Harry’s confession made him slightly uncomfortable and Louis didn’t know what to say. Questions about what happened to them circulated through Louis’ mind but before he had time to verbalise them Harry pulled the car off the road after the sign written “Saariselkä”, parked it and shut off the engine.

“We’re here.” Harry said, and something in his tone of voice declared the subject was closed for now and quickly stepped out of the car.

With a silent sigh, Louis pushed the door open and immediately the bitterly cold wind slapped harshly against his face. Louis pulled his beanie lower and tightened his red woolen scarf around his neck as he scurried after Harry who was already a few metres ahead. He was striding quickly across the snowy path and Louis had to take two steps to advance the same distance as Harry did with one. Damn him and his endlessly long, toned legs.

The bastard knew exactly what he was doing and when they reached the front entrance of the ski lodge at almost the same time, he just winked his eye and let Louis in first. If Louis had felt sorry for him earlier in the car, the feeling was definitely gone by now. And what was even more annoying was that he didn’t have time to verbally express how he felt as Harry was already chirping to the cashier about the weather as he purchased the ski passes.

Louis’ mood was easily readable by his facial expression, even for Harry, but he just acted like nothing had happened and chatted cheerfully while they were getting their equipment from the rental shop located in the same building. Harry rambled on and on until they were back outside and this time it was Louis who took a head start leaving Harry behind. He heard him stumbling after him in his chunky ski boots but did nothing to aid his troubles. As the ground below his feet changed to pure snow instead of a mixture of snow and gravel, Louis clicked his skis on and created even more distance between them.

But because Harry was his driver after all, Louis knew he had to wait for him at some point and he decided to do it near the first ski lift. While waiting for Harry to arrive, Louis had time to take a look at the slope map and without bothering to ask Harry, he decided the one he was already at should be alright for them for the warm-up. Louis had no idea how experienced Harry was at skiing but judging by the way he clumsily made his way next to Louis he would bet he didn’t have much.

“Ready to ski?” Harry asked, a wide smile glued to his face and that was the first time Louis noticed he had dimples. Louis loved, _loved_ dimples. He just didn’t like the guy these dimples were attached to, but despite that he let himself have a moment to admire them behind his goggles, hoping Harry wouldn’t notice. Judging by the way his dimples cratered even deeper into his cheeks, Louis had a gut feeling he might have been exposed. But points for Harry keeping his mouth shut this time. Of course, the silence didn’t last long, and soon enough Harry was prattling on about something irrelevant about his life and Louis tried to look as though he was interested.

Which he obviously wasn’t. Right?

Somehow, they managed to get up to the top safe and sound even if Harry had almost fallen off the chair lift after he had told the most ridiculous joke Louis had ever heard and recklessly cackled from it. Louis may, or may not, have giggled a little bit from the godawful joke, but it still didn’t mean it had been good. Absolutely not.

Once at the top, Louis mentally prepared himself not to laugh too much at Harry’s attempts to ski, but as soon as they took their first descent down the hill, Louis realised if someone was going to be laughed at, it would be himself. Harry, who had barely been able to stand without tripping over his own feet, was now racing down the slopes like a fucking pro. He wasn’t too bad either, but Harry just seemed so effortless and that was another reason to dislike him.

“I can teach you.” Harry smirked when he appeared next to Louis after doubling back and saw the astonishment on his face.

“No, thanks.” Louis grunted. He didn’t need Harry’s, nor anyone else’s help with skiing. He was perfectly fine with the skills he had. Seriously.

To strengthen his words, he gained some momentum and left Harry behind. Of course, he quickly caught up to Louis, but it didn’t remove the satisfaction his little spurt had given him.

On the way back up the hill, Harry carried on about his previous ski trips somewhere, Louis wasn’t really listening, and as soon as they hopped off the ski lift, Louis escaped the meaningless chatter by swooping down onto the slope.

Harry was near in tow, of course, but with each repetition, their little race down the hill became more hilarious each run down. Louis wouldn’t admit it to Harry, or even less to Niall whose fault this all was, that he was actually having a _somewhat_ good time.

And life was starting to seem even better when, after three hours of skiing, they were sitting in the ski lodge dining room and Louis was having his third mugful of hot chocolate spiced up with a little (okay, a lot of) mint schnapps. Despite that they had just eaten their lunch, maybe he was drunker than he had realised, he almost peed in his pants while laughing hard at one of Harry’s lame knock-knock jokes.

“You should have one of these too. They are pretty delicious.” Louis raised his steaming mug and took another sip.

”I’m driving. So I’m sticking to this plain one now, thanks.” Harry shook his head and Louis watched how his slightly sweat dampened curls bounced rhythmically with his moves.

“You’re lame.” Louis huffed, trying to be impassive after he tore his gaze from Harry’s hair.

“I’m lame because I don’t drink and drive?” Harry asked tilting his head.

“No,” Louis sneered, “but we can leave the car here and get sloshed. Then take a taxi back to the hotel.”

“Or we can finish these, and I can drive us both back there with our car because my bucket list is waiting. Or I can leave you here and you can take a taxi whenever you’re ready to go back.”

“Fine.” Louis sighed. “Let’s be boring then. What’s next on the list?”

***

Once they were back in the hotel, they made a reservation for dinner before going to their igloo. Louis lazily scrolled through his social media, made a couple of posts and snoozed the rest of the time on the bed while Harry made plans for the rest of the day. Because Louis still hadn’t bothered to google any information about the activities around here, he just let Harry do the planning. He knew he didn’t have to participate in any of them if he didn’t want to, but when the alternative would be to stare out the windows and slip slowly into madness, moments later he found himself strolling around the hotel area with a very enthusiastic Harry.

First, he dragged Louis to an art exhibition showcasing pieces from local artists, which could be great and interesting if you were into that sort of thing, but that really wasn’t Louis’ cup of tea. Harry was excited to explore the small gallery and even read the labels aloud telling the backgrounds of each piece.

But because Louis is still a bit tipsy, he was able to handle it all much better than he had expected. Eventually, he did get squirrely and started exploring on his own and found his way to the tower of the gallery. That was where Harry found him moments later. Quietly they admired the vast wilderness which was spread widely around them and all they could hear was wind interspersed with silence. It felt almost sacrilegious to speak aloud in an environment like that and eventually Harry just ended up pointing his finger towards something he had spotted. His discovery ended up being reindeer in the snow-laden meadow. And later on in the day, they were even able to get close to them when their paths crossed.

But somehow it all had been more fun than Louis had expected it to be, although he would ever admit that to anyone. Not terrific, but a good time anyway. But when they came to the low snowy knoll, his eyes really started to sparkle with excitement. There were colourful plastic sleds laying around on the ground, just waiting for someone to use them. But now the area was empty, just the two of them standing at the bottom of the tiny hill. The darkness had already fallen over the landscape and the mystical dark blue sky had given way to the real night time. Thanks to the outdoor lighting it wasn’t pitch dark, but apparently, it was enough to keep other visitors away from there. At least this time.

They stood there a while glancing towards the sleds before taking a quick peek at each other. In unison, they both grinned and rushed towards the neglected sleds without saying a word and each snatched one and tucked it under their arms. Louis didn’t have time to think how eery it was that they understood each other's train of thought just by a little glance as they skittered up to the hill. Once at the top, they hopped on their sleds and slid down the hill, massive grins on their faces.

They went up and down the hill several times. Harry was always the one whose sled slid faster and farther, and yet he was always able to catch up to Louis at the top. It must be his mile-long legs that gave him the advantage with running again. This time they stopped at the peak, catching their breath for a while.

“So,” Harry started, “when are you going to acknowledge I'm kicking your arse?” He finished his question with a stupid grin on his face.

“I didn’t know it was a competition.” Louis lied. Since the beginning, Louis had noticed Harry was a competitive little shit, perhaps even more than himself, and that was a lot to be said. But the biggest issue was that Louis hated losing more than anything and Harry seemed to be annoyingly good at everything he did.

“Mmm, sure.” Harry winked. “But let’s be fair, it’s only because you’re so tiny.”

“I’m not tiny!”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Harry admitted. “You’re super tiny. Good luck  catching me, Peter Pan.” Harry said and jumped on his sled. But this time Louis had been able to anticipate his move and was half a second ahead of him on his way down the hill.

Then Louis wasn’t sure what happened. Somehow their sleds had bumped into each other going down the hill and Harry ended up laying spread eagle on top of Louis on the snowy ground. He should have been cold as he was pressed against the icy surface but feeling Harry’s firm body on top of him was enough to spark a heatwave that would melt the snow in a five-foot radius around them. His face was so close to Louis’ that the only thing separating their lips were the white puffs of their warm breath. Their eyes locked, and time seemed to stop for a moment. Harry’s lips were like cherry coloured magnets that screamed Louis’ name, but before he was able to do anything he could regret, Harry’s pink bobble hat slipped off his head and onto Louis face and startled them from the daze that had overcome them.

Quickly they both jumped up and started to shake the snow off their clothes to avoid looking at each other. They started to walk again but the banter and joyful chit chat were missing this time. It wasn’t awkward, like Louis had thought it might be, but more like shy silence where neither of them knew what to say next. In the end, it was Louis who ended it by smashing Harry’s face with a glove full of snow and the moment they had shared was quickly forgotten when the snow fight took over.

But still, there was the weird buzzing in Louis’ mind, but maybe it was just the booze-spiked mint cocoa and nothing else…

***

“I’m not going to the bloody sauna, nevermind go in there naked!” Louis said in a firm tone.

“You can’t come to Finland and never go to a sauna, Lou. At least, we have to give it a try.” Harry persuaded him in the way one would persuade a stubborn kid. Maybe it was that he called him Lou or a half-naked Harry in front of him that caused him to hear his own voice saying ‘okay’.

“But the towel stays.” Louis added quickly.

“C’mon, Lou. There is nothing sexual about being nude in the sauna.” Harry said as he stripped off the rest of his clothes in the changing room they were standing in. Their igloo didn’t have a shower and if they wanted to use one, they had to walk near the reception where the showers, and apparently the saunas, were located.

Yeah, right. Tell that to Louis’ dick which was starting to chub up when his eyes found their way to Harry’s sinewy body. Harry slammed the door of his locker closed and walked to the showers swaying his arse. Even seeing his naked bum was enough for Louis to choke on his saliva but when Harry turned at the door and Louis saw his perfectly thick cock hanging heavily between his legs, he almost swallowed his tongue. Harry smirked at him and left Louis alone in his misery. What a fucking cocktease.

Fortunately, the heat of the sauna killed his dick’s will to fill up more. He had managed to take a shower and walk into the sauna with his semi without Harry noticing it, but his own cheeks were flushed even before the heat turned the rest of his body red and sweaty. Louis must admit, Harry had been right. Louis definitely didn’t have time to think about Harry’s stunning, naked body when the hot air was surrounding him and making his skin burn. Louis had been sure he would hate the sauna but it was weirdly very cleansing to sweat out all the dirt in his pores. If Louis had thought the sauna had been the worst part of Harry’s plans, he had been so wrong.

“Nope.” Louis said for the third time when he was standing outside in his swimming trunks in the freaking glacial air staring at the hole in the frozen lake. “You’re absolutely out of your fucking mind if you even think about going down there.”

“You wanna bet? If I go, you have to go there too.”

“That’s not even a bet when we would both be losing.” Louis huffed rolling his eyes.

“Well, it’s up to you. I’m not going to lose.” Harry said and quickly descended the few steps on the ladder, ending neck deep in the dark water. He took a couple of deep breathes in and out, closing his eyes and then almost leapt out of the water.

“So…?” Harry asked, nodding towards the black hole in the ice.

“Fuck it!” Louis shouted and followed Harry’s suit. When he was almost fully submerged in the near-freezing water it felt like hundreds of needles were piercing his skin, the water was so so cold. His breath felt trapped in his lungs as the numbing water surrounded his body, making it ache.

“Fuckfuckfuck.” Louis repeated while he climbed up the rickety ladder and the cold air hugged him again, although it didn’t feel nearly as cold to him now after just being in what felt like a polar bears asshole. He didn’t turn to look back and see if Harry was following him as he ran back inside and headed straight to the sauna.

Maybe it was the ice swimming or the sauna or all of the outdoor activities they had done during the day, but almost as soon as Louis’ head hit the pillow after their dinner he was already asleep. The last thing he heard was Harry’s sleepy voice mumbling in his ear that they had an early start the next morning, but he didn’t have any energy left to ask for more details. He could do that tomorrow.

 

 **Day 3**  

Harry’s early was like really, really early. Even if the sun could rise, it wouldn’t do it for hours anyway. So that, combined with the fact that Louis wasn’t a morning person by any means, _and_ he was forced to sit inside the ice cube on wheels that Harry called a car without his morning tea, was enough to make him bitchy. He was sitting in the front seat with his arms crossed over his chest and watched Harry drive while side eyeing him from time to time. They had been driving in silence for ages, at least it felt like that, though the speedometre disagreed. Or maybe it was just Harry’s snail-slow driving style that didn’t lead them anywhere quickly.

“I didn’t realise the clothing was a sign.” Louis eventually remarked.

“A sign of what?”

“You dress like a granddad, and you definitely drive like one. Although I’m quite sure mine would pass your arse on the road even with glaucoma.”

“I don’t dress like granddad, I’m 25 bloody years old.” Harry said, sounding mildly offended.

“Oh, yes you do! And as proof, I’ll give you an example; last night’s outfit.” Louis huffed and started to count with his fingers. “Baggy dress trousers. Check. Beige knitted oversized cardigan. Check. Cap straight from Peaky Blinders. Check. And as a cherry on top of the dinosaur look, the most hideous loafers I’ve ever seen. Check.”

Louis saw that Harry stared at his four, now pointed fingers before he slowly moved his gaze back to the road. He was biting his lower lip hard, but Louis wasn’t sure if it was because he was upset and Louis had finally managed to anger him or was he trying to hold in a laugh. Louis had noticed Harry actually had a sense of humour, even quite similar to his own, but yet his expression remained unreadable.

“I don’t drive like a granddad.” Harry finally said, and this time his face scrunched in a way as though he was trying to keep from laughing.

“Do you really want me to recite that list for you, too?” Louis cocked his brow with a challenging look.

“Have you ever driven in the snow?” Harry asked a counter question.

“No.” Louis admitted.

“Then you don’t have an opinion either.”

“It doesn’t seem so difficult that you couldn’t drive faster than 20 miles an hour.”

“I’m driving much faster than that, thanks.”

“Yeah, but if you drove with the velocity of the speed limit, we could actually get wherever we are even going, like, today.”

“But I don’t want to kill Rudolph.” Harry pouted.

“Umm— What…?”

“I have read it’s common for reindeer to wander onto the roads, and I don’t want to hit one. I’m not like you.” Harry added accusingly.

“What…?” Louis laughed.

“You ate Rudolph yesterday and that was brutal to watch.”

“You eat meat too. How is eating reindeer brutal, but your chicken was perfectly fine?”

“Because—” Harry paused for a second. “Because without Rudolph there is no Christmas!”

“Oh. My. God!” Louis burst into laughter. Harry’s rationale was something he would expect from a toddler, not from a grown man. But Harry was a lovely combination of both of them — Louis cut his thoughts short. Since when did he think anything about Harry was lovely? He’s annoying. Full stop, Louis reminded himself. He shook his head to get the fucked up idea out of his mind, and to distract himself even more, he asked Harry another question.

“Alright, alright.” He still shook his head, this time more like amused. “But really, where are we going?”

A sparkle flashed in Harry’s green eyes when he looked at Louis and answered with a wide smile, “Why Lou, we are going to meet Father Christmas!”

“Pardon me?” Louis asked, and mentally converted the word lovely and changed it to puerile.

“We’re going to Rovaniemi to meet Father Christmas.”

“Where the hell is this Rov — whatever?”

“It’s just a three hours drive from the hotel.”

“Just?! With an average driver, or yours?” Louis couldn’t help but ask.

“Both.” Harry replied scrunching his nose.

“Sure. If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Fine.”

There was a lull in conversation while Harry concentrated on driving, so Louis pulled out his mobile and played Fortnite for a bit.

“Tell me one thing…” Louis eventually broke the silence and aimed his gaze towards Harry. “Why on earth are we driving this long arse drive to see Father fucking Christmas when we could have seen him at our hotel if we had wanted?”

“It’s not the same.” Harry insisted.

“And why is that?”

“Because the Santa we’re going to see is the real one.”

Louis closed his eyes briefly as though the gesture itself could prevent his head from exploding. Perhaps it even helped a bit, or maybe it was the internal counting to ten before he carefully asked Harry “And what makes you think so?”

“It’s not about what I think, it’s a fact.”

“Yeah.” Louis sighed. The only fact right here, right now was that Louis was stuck in a car with a bleedin’ numpty, and if wasn’t bad enough, the car was careening him forward, slowly but surely, towards his worst fucking nightmare.

***

Somehow, they had ended up having an hour-long debate about Christmas. Harry obviously, unquestionably loved Christmas, and everything about the holiday season, and Louis… Well, not so much.

“How can someone dislike Christmas so much?” Harry exasperated.

“I actually prefer using the word _hate_.” Louis corrected him and when Harry gave him a questioning look, he specified. “Instead of dislike.”

“Ok.” Harry nodded pensively but didn’t say anything else. But by observing his body language, Louis knew their discussion was far from over. Harry gnashed his front teeth into his bottom lip and then he nervously sucked the same lip into his mouth. He furrowed his forehead as though he was heavily pondering his thoughts before he succumbed and asked with care and caution woven in his voice, “Why do you hate it so much then?”

“Do I need specific reasons before I can officially hate Christmas?” he asked snarkily.

“Well, no. But most people like Christmas, and usually there is more to the story if one doesn’t.” Harry drawled. “But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

It was annoying how well Harry was able to read him. Yeah, there definitely was a story or two behind it, and they weren’t pleasant. But whether he wanted to share them with Harry, Louis wasn’t so sure. He felt like he was exposing his much-guarded fragility way too much in doing so, but for reasons unknown, the words started to flow from his mouth.

“My birthday is on Christmas Eve.” Louis sighed. “I guess, it was the first reason I started to hate Christmas as a kid. Everyone else in my family had their birthdays scattered throughout the year, and they were able to have Christmas _and_ a birthday party separately. Yeah, my mum always made sure I had a birthday cake and presents, but it still didn’t feel the same. It felt like there was always a rush to get through Christmas Eve, and needless to say, my birthday because Christmas was the following day, and everyone would get presents then too.”

“Do you still feel that way?” asked Harry.

“Do you think I’m still seven?”

“Well, no. Although, you’re probably still the same size as you were when you were seven, but I’m not going to mention that now.” Louis gave him a murderous look, but Harry just laughed at him even more.

“ _Anyway…_ ” Louis narrowed his eyes. He should have stopped there because Harry was an lummox and didn’t deserve to hear his reasoning. But still, Louis wanted him to know why he loathed the day. “It was also just before Christmas when my dad left us just like that, leaving my mum with five small children. I would say it wasn’t a very happy Christmas we had that year. However, the worst one was a couple of years ago when my mum passed away just two weeks before Christmas.”

There was an audible intake of breath and a palpable air of remorse coming from Harry’s side of the vehicle and after a few moments pause, Harry glanced over at Louis before he spoke, “I’m so sorry you had to experience all of that, Louis. Those things are never easy. I know that firsthand.” Harry said, a hint of sorrow inflected in his tone.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. My parents are divorced too. And I lost my stepdad two years ago. I mean, I’m not comparing our grief because shared situations between two people are never the same, but I do know something about how they might make you feel.” Harry explained and Louis felt a strange type of comfort that he had shared his thoughts with Harry and that he could empathize with him.

“So, now you understand why I hate Christmas?”

“Yes, of course. But you know, at the end of the day, it’s not Christmas’ fault.”

“What!?!” Louis shouted.

“It’s just unlucky happenstance and you shouldn’t hate Christmas for that.” Harry smiled.

Louis just couldn’t believe his ears. How the hell was he was still defending bloody Christmas after everything that Louis had just told him? In protest, he moved his seat back about 6 inches, pulled his legs up to rest his feet on the dash, and leaned back closing his eyes for a second.

*** 

“Louis.” Louis heard the low voice coming somewhere from his left. “Lou.” The voice repeated again and this time the words were enhanced with a little nudge to his shoulder.

“Mmm…” Louis mumbled rubbing his eyes before opening them.

“We’re here.” Harry said, looking at Louis from the driver’s seat. “You fell asleep.”

Louis hoisted himself up and stretched his sleep numb limbs. Just then he looked around and wanted to fall back to sleep immediately after taking in the scenery. They were sitting in a large car park surrounded by dozens of cars. People were wandering towards the road where a sign in bold block letters read “Santa Park.” Most of them seemed to be families with children but there were a few adults couples too, and soon Louis realised he was one of the people meandering towards the large arch-shaped doors at the main entrance. Apparently, Harry had already bought them their tickets online, so they just walked in.

After leaving their winter jackets with the coat check, they walked through a hallway which was illuminated with different coloured lights making the darkness glow in shades of neon. The high-ceilinged tunnel led them to the underground amusement park. It wasn’t anything like Disneyland or any other big parks around the world, but here one could find anything related to the Christmas season and Santa, of course.

Louis knew his younger siblings would have loved it all, and it seemed Harry was as thrilled as any other five-year-olds would have been. Before they started to explore the circle-shaped area, they walked under the branches scrawled with the texts “Arctic Circle” and “Napapiiri”. Just next to it was the Post Office and they both sent postcards back home, Louis to his siblings, and Harry to the godchildren he apparently had a slew of already.

They strolled through the gallery full of different kinds of skilfully carved ice sculptures, Harry ended up decorating a gingerbread man with a female staff member dressed as an elf and as Louis saw, he was so pleased to be complimented by her. Louis shook his head in amusement, he was a baker after all. Of course he knew how to decorate them.

Harry was still able to drag Louis on a train which was like Lapland’s version of Disney’s “It’s a Small World”. It was a nice ride, but after that Louis told Harry his senses had been assaulted enough for the day and let Harry explore around alone while he sat in a café in the middle of the attraction. At first, Harry looked disappointed, but then Louis saw him every once in a while when he checked in with Louis letting him know where he was going to next. Elf School, Elf Show, toy shop, Angry Birds… Louis had no idea how Angry Birds were related to Santa, but he let it go this time.

Harry had said he was going to see Santa at the end of their visit and Louis decided to go look for him when he got bored to just sit down and continue playing Fortnite. It was easy to spot him and Louis watched from a distance as Harry sat on Santa’s lap and whispered something into his ear. Louis saw people snickering at Harry, and despite his first inclination to have the floor split in two and swallow him whole in an effort to avoid seeing how embarrassing Harry was, he now wanted to kick everyone’s arses. How dare they laugh at this endearing bampot?

No one, with the exception of himself, was allowed to do so. Louis quickened his steps, and as Harry was about to get up, Louis got there. He lent his hand and as Harry gripped it, Louis pulled him up and guided him away from the sneering bastards. He didn’t say anything, just held Harry’s hand tightly and didn’t let go until they were back in the cloakroom to get their jackets. Harry didn’t ask and Louis didn’t tell, they just pretended the incident never happened. Long after they had left Santa Park and were halfway back to their hotel, Louis didn’t know what to make of the fact he was still able to feel the warmth of Harry’s hand when it had entwined with his own.

***

Harry had led them down another path than the one they usually took when they walked from the car towards their igloo. It circled the small lake, now frozen and snow-covered, of course. There seemed to be no accommodations this side of the resort, just evergreen trees, pristine white snow and a peaceful, almost mystical atmosphere. Soon it was going to be pitch dark again, but right now everything appeared to be enrobed by a soft, blue veil.

It was pure white magic that was hard to even describe because sometimes words can’t do it justice. They walked slowly now as they took in their surroundings. After a few more minutes, in the distance they saw a newlywed couple walking away from a building, and Louis assumed it must be a chapel. When they reached the building, they verified that it was a chapel. But not just a normal one; it was made from snow and ice.

“Wow!” Harry said, with mirth in his voice as he admired the small chapel. “Do you think we can go inside?”

“There’s no sign saying we can’t. I think the wedding is already over.” Louis replied, scanning the inside of the building with his eyes. It was quite low, but it was made from snow, so no one would actually expect it to reach the heavens. The pair of light blue doors seemed to be the only element made of something other than snow. Harry was already standing next to them, looking at Louis hesitantly, who then simply nodded slightly, signalling for Harry to push the door carefully open.  

“Ooh!” Harry said, and Louis couldn’t help but agree. It was simply stunning.

A snow white arched roof made the chapel look surprisingly spacious. With all the snow, the place should have felt cold and maybe even plain, but it was neither of them. There was a pale blue tapestry hanging on the opposite wall of the doors. Another blue element in there were the small benches on the floor which were arranged in a herringbone pattern on both sides of the aisle. All the tables, including the one acting as an altar, were made of ice, so were the dividing walls behind the benches. The ice sculptures glistened from the lit candles left behind by the wedding party. Silently they walked down the aisle admiring the beauty around them.

“Someday I want to get married here.” Harry whispered with a quiet voice after a while.

“Who even wants to get married nowadays?” Louis huffed without thinking before he spoke. “What difference does it make?”

“Me. I want to get married. I want to have family. I’m sorry if that sounds stupid and old fashioned.” Harry sniffed and quickly left the chapel.

Fuck. Maybe Louis was cynical about marriage, but he had his reasons. And he never meant to hurt Harry. Or ruin their visit to this unbelievable place. _Fuck_ , Louis repeated inwardly and rushed after Harry.

Once he was out of the chapel, he looked to his left and to his right, searching for Harry in the dark and finally spotted him running in the direction of their igloo. Louis hastened his pace to catch up with him, but once again, he was too fast for Louis to catch up to him.

Harry was already inside the room when Louis stepped in and was lying on the bed with his face buried in the pillow. He still had his outerwear on, only his boots were kicked off from his feet and Louis almost tripped over one of them when he entered the igloo.

”Hey.” Louis said softly as he carefully approached the bed and after a slight pause, he sat down on the bed next to Harry. ”I didn’t mean to hurt you by what I said. I’m sorry if I did.”

“Why don’t you believe in marriage?” Harry sniffed to the pillow.

“Maybe I’ve just seen too many marriages fall apart, including my own parents’. They never last.” Louis said because for him it was the truth.

“That’s not true.” Harry objected and slightly raised his head, but still refused to look at Louis.

“Are your own parents still married to each other?” Louis asked even if he knew the answer.

“Well, no…”

“My point exactly.” Louis replied.

“It’s not that simple.”

“I think it is.”

“Are you saying you don’t even believe in love?” Now Harry was fully turned towards Louis to gauge his reaction.

Louis shrugged.

“Don’t you see how sad that is?“

“I think you should be the cynical one. You are the one with broken engagement, not me.” Louis huffed.

“Thanks for the reminder.” Harry said with a flat tone.

“But seriously. How can you still believe in love and all the stuff around it with your past?” Louis inquired.

“He just wasn’t the one for me.” Harry stated simply.

“And you’re sure there is someone else in the universe who is your missing half? And if you ever meet him, you’ll just immediately know, like, ‘Bam, he’s the one!’?”

“Yeah.” Harry raised his gaze and stared straight into Louis’ eyes, into his soul, with those sincere green eyes and something warm, and distinctly dangerous, flickered in Louis’ chest. Louis didn’t want to think about why his cheeks suddenly felt on fire and all the words were stuck in his cotton-dry mouth. All he was able to do was stare back at Harry.

“I met my soulmate about a year ago.” Harry continued and added with a bit of a sad voice, “But he didn’t like me.”

“How do you know that?”

“I saw him once while I was talking with my friends. He stood and listened there for a few minutes and then suddenly disappeared. He never came back. But I just knew without even saying a word to him, that he was my other half.”

The story reminded Louis too much of their first encounter, but Harry couldn’t be talking about them. Could he? Behind his jack rabbiting heart, Louis was too afraid to ask for more details to be sure. He wasn’t sure which answer would have been more terrifying; the one where his guess was correct, or the one where it wasn’t.

“But you ended up getting engaged anyway?”

“Yeah.” Harry sighed. “It just felt so stupid in the end, the whole soulmate thing. I was happy with my boyfriend, well kinda happy anyway, and yet here I was pining after a guy I never actually even talked to. I tried to forget him, and I honestly thought saying ‘yes’ to my boyfriend’s proposal would wash away the delusional thoughts of running away together and living happily ever after. But it didn’t happen. Oddly enough, I felt even more caged afterwards. It was me who eventually ended it.”

“Did you ever meet the guy again?” Louis asked quietly.

“Yeah.” Harry nodded after a barely noticeable pause, biting his lip. He refused to look at Louis when he continued in a small and insecure voice “My friend kinda set us up.”

Now Louis was 110% sure Harry was talking about them and didn’t know what to do with the information. He felt the urge to reach out and caress Harry’s face, press his own lips against his and savour the taste of him. He was almost leaning towards him when he realised what he was about to do and quickly backed up.

He saw the disappointment flicker in Harry’s eyes, but this all felt too much right now. He rushed to the loo and sat there trying to calm down before being face to face with Harry again. He wasn’t sure how long it took, maybe five, maybe fifteen minutes before he forced himself out of the toilet. Harry didn’t say anything, just glanced briefly at Louis and continued tying up his bootlaces.

“Shall we go? The huskies are waiting.” Harry eventually said when the silence dragged on and on.

“Yeah.” Louis nodded and couldn’t help but think he had just ruined everything without even knowing what the ‘everything’ even was. “Let’s go.”

 ***

If there existed two kinds of silence: comfortable and awkward, the latter definitely was the dominant kind as they walked towards the reception area where they would soon be picked up. Snow crunched under their boots with each step and it was the only sound ricocheting around them. Louis hated this heavy tension looming between them, and even more so because he knew it was primarily his own fault.

But his feelings had just taken him aback. He wasn’t like this. He didn’t believe any of this soulmate shit Harry had talked to him about. Like he had told Harry, he wasn’t even sure he even believed in love either. But somewhere deep inside him, maybe in his heart, a small voice was trying to object so damn hard, but Louis didn’t want to listen to it. No, because if he did, it would turn his whole life upside down and he wasn’t sure if he was prepared for that.

And besides, he even didn’t like Harry…

All it took was one glance towards him and even he wasn’t sure if he believed that anymore. He wanted to say something to Harry, to wash away the sadness his actions and his words had caused. But the words just didn’t come. Louis simply had no idea what to say to Harry and it frustrated him more than anything. He was so tempted to turn around and let Harry go alone on the husky safari but it was the only thing during this holiday that he really wanted to do since Harry arrived. Not only to kill time, but because he wanted to and now, he was afraid that he had ruined the whole experience, not only for Harry but for himself too.

If walking side by side in the silence had been awkward, standing and waiting outside the reception area of the hotel was even more cringy. Louis felt Harry’s eyes tracking his movements as he kicked a lump of ice around to kill the time. A couple of times Louis was sure Harry was just about to say something but then changed his mind at the last second and Louis hated this. Just two days ago Louis would have done anything to mute Harry, and now he’s on the precipice of begging him to talk even if it was actually Louis himself who should be the one to make the first move and end the silence.

But he just couldn’t.

As the waiting seem to take longer than Louis had expected, his thoughts wandered back to the night he had met Harry; the one and only time they had met before. When he let himself reminisce to that time, it was odd how vivid the memory still was in his mind — for being just a random encounter with a random person.

Louis had been so pissed off when he had entered the venue that night. Earlier in the day he had had a meeting with one of the biggest egomaniacs in the music industry in which he was trying to negotiate his client out of her contract. Although he had succeeded with it weeks later, that day all his attempts had been fruitless. If that hadn’t been enough, his plans to go out with Liam and escape the festivities they both avoided like the plague, had been tossed out of the window because apparently his boyfriend, Zayn, had managed to get them a table at some trendy new vegetarian restaurant that same evening. After ending his sour phone call with his friend to the words “Enjoy your carrots.”, Niall had found him in his office and coerced him into attending the record company’s annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party. 

And the first thing he had encountered after Niall had ditched him for the buffet table, was a circle of people with Harry at the centre of it. He was fucking gorgeous, and looked so genuinely happy, and worst of all he was wearing a godawful Christmas sweater depicting Santa having a wee off a roof in the form of flashing LED lights —  and that had been enough for Louis to hate him. The sparkle in his eyes when he had been talking about wrapping presents for his godchildren and decorating gingerbread houses was so opposite to how Louis was feeling at that very moment. He just wanted to kick something and get drunk as soon as possible. And then—

Louis’ thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a man, maybe in his thirties, approached them and after introducing himself as Mika, he started to guide them towards the kennel. He chatted lightly, asking the same questions as everyone else would do in these kinds of situations; who they were, where they were from, did they like Finland. Normally Louis probably would be annoyed about the barrage of questions even if he knew it was simply polite manners by making small talk. It was just that most of the time it just felt as though the other person didn’t care about the answers, but just to fill the time chit-chatting about this and that. But now Louis could have hugged the guy that made Harry smile and relax again, not to mention he got the much-needed distraction from his own recollection.

The walk wasn’t long and the closer to the kennel they got, the more they were able to hear the dogs. When they actually saw them, their barks and whines were deafening. There were about a dozen different coloured huskies eagerly waiting for them at the front of their sled, harnesses on and ready to go as soon as they were given the signal from Mika.

“Oh, look Lou! They are so adorable!” Harry cried out with a massive smile on his face while he pointed towards the dogs. If Mika hadn’t been leading them towards a small building, Louis was sure within a few seconds Harry would have been kneeling in front of the dogs and scratching them; and Louis most likely would have taken a page out of his book if he was completely honest. He had always loved dogs, and Louis was happy to see Harry liked them too. He beamed at Harry and he happily reflected it back to Louis. Perhaps all they needed was a couple dozen very noisy dogs around them to melt away the tension between them.

Once inside, they were given steering and safety instructions and a stack of extra winter clothes to wear during the ride. They put on the thermal overalls and pulled up the pair of woollen socks over their feet before slipping them into winter boots. They each put on a pair of thick gloves and a hat and they were finally ready to go. It was a relief to get outside because their clothes were made for outdoor use and wearing them inside felt like being in that sauna all over again. Minus the boner.

They walked to their sled and were able to greet their team properly. Their barks were still as eager as they were before but once they started to pet and scratch them, the dogs seemed to quiet down a little bit.

“They are so beautiful.” Harry sighed and Louis couldn’t but agree. They were perky looking creatures with fluffy salt and pepper fur and enigmatic blue eyes. Their bushy tails were wagging rapidly in the air when they were being petted and even more when they realised the ride was about to start.

“Do you want to drive first?” Louis asked Harry.

“No, you go first, Lou.” Harry shook his head, but soon added, “If it’s alright with you.”

“Of course.” Louis replied with a slight nod. After hearing Louis’ answer, Harry sat on the reindeer hide-covered sled. Louis noticed how his nose scrunched a tiny bit upon seeing the fur but didn’t say anything after all.

Louis stepped on the runners and the excitement started to bubble in his belly. He likes fast cars and speed in general too, but this felt so different than anything he had ever done before. The dogs were already standing and restlessly moving on their spots but when Louis gave them the order to move, they seemed to change into ‘working mode’ immediately.

The sled twitched as it started to move, first slowly and then faster and faster. The dogs were now completely silent and after a few kilometres the landscape changed from flat land to the snowy forest. The only sound around them was the sled swishing against the snow and Harry’s joyful shrieks from time to time. After a while, Louis’ stress levels started to dissipate and he was really able to start to enjoy the ride. Before he knew it, they were already at the halfway mark and it was Harry’s turn to drive.

They took some pictures, Louis sat on the sled and Harry stepped on the runners. Somehow the speed felt much faster when he was sitting. Maybe it was the feeling of not being able to control anything, he just had to trust Harry. He was a steady driver, that wasn’t a problem. But there was no way Louis would admit to anyone that he was actually a bit scared as Harry was navigating the sled terrifyingly fast through the dark forest. When Louis had been driving, the fear started to fade away and he started to see all the beauty around them. Snow covered evergreens, the power of nature, a clear sky with thousands of stars twinkling above them. Louis couldn’t believe how he had thought he would hate Lapland. No, he didn’t like the bitter cold, he never would, but the snow-capped magic around them was something he hadn’t expected to find.

And neither had he expected to find Harry.

Unknowingly, Louis’ thoughts had turned back to Harry again. If Louis was completely honest, it had been happening quite a lot over the course of two days that he had spent time with him. Slowly but surely, they have evolved from strangers to, dare he say, friends? During the drive back to their hotel, when he had finally been able to relax, it had been easy to let his thoughts flow and for some reason, they always ended up to Harry. But especially now, when they were walking back to their igloo, Harry’s mere presence made it impossible for Louis to just ignore him. The snow sparkled like millions of tiny crystals as the lights from the igloos reflected back down on it and the frosty air was feeling crisper on their faces, but it wasn’t those things that made Louis’ skin tingle recklessly and his heart beat wildly.

No, it was the curly haired man next to him who did it all.

They were walking so close to each other that Louis didn’t have to move his hand more than a few centimetres to reach Harry’s hand and take it into his own. Harry audibly inhaled and quickly glanced towards Louis. He stayed silent but the shy smile ghosted across his lips. Louis squeezed his hand and Harry responded by doing the same. Hand in hand they walked until they reached their dome. They took their shoes and outdoor clothes off and suddenly Louis felt way too exposed despite the surrounding darkness -- as if his shield had been taken off with his winter clothes and it was just Louis standing there, exposed with his raw feelings. And now somehow, he had to face them.

But this time it was Harry who took the lead and guided them to sit on the bed. Harry raised his gaze and stared at Louis with his big, bashful eyes as if he had just realised what he had done in a moment of bravery. Now he just looked terrified that Louis would reject him again.

But this time he didn’t turn Harry down. His hands raised up to lightly grasp Harry’s cheeks as if they had a mind of their own. As Harry leaned into his palms, Louis couldn’t help but caress his soft skin with his thumbs. He let his fingers trail his delicate features; cheekbones, nose, lips…Harry parted his lips slightly, still keeping his eyes closed.

“Harry, open your eyes. Please.” Louis asked softly. So softly, he barely recognised his own voice, but it didn’t prevent Harry from opening his eyes. Timidly he looked at Louis under his long eyelashes. Slowly Louis pulled Harry closer, thumbs still making tiny circles on his smooth skin and finally pressed his lips to Harry’s. His lips were pillowy and slightly chapped from the arctic air as they kissed for the first time under the glass dome, and when Louis gently slipped his tongue inside his mouth, he was able to taste the flavour of peppermint from the bubble gum Harry was almost constantly chewing.  
  
After they separated, they both bashfully looked at one another to assess the aftermath of the impulsive kiss. Well, if Louis was totally honest with himself, the kiss had been brewing underneath the entire time they’ve been here together, and apparently for Harry, even longer. But still, it had left them both overwhelmed.  
  
“What made you change your mind?” Harry finally asked in a small voice after their breath had evened out again.  
  
“About what?” Louis asked with a puzzled expression, although he knew exactly what he was talking about. But he just needed a bit more time to collect his thoughts.  
  
“About me.” Harry bit his lip nervously while he waited for Louis’ reply.  
  
“What makes you think I’ve changed my mind?”  
  
“You just kissed me…” Harry reminded him but the uncertainty was creeping into his gaze. Louis loved to tease him but this time he didn’t want to make him feel bad either.  
  
“And I’m just about to kiss you again.” Louis smirked hoping to make Harry smile again. He did, only slightly though, a pensive look plastered on his beautiful face.  
  
“Seriously, Lou.” Harry said eyes focused to the pillow lying on the bed next to them.  
  
“You.” Louis sighed. “You changed my mind. Maybe over the last two days I realised you weren’t so bad after all.”  
  
“Mmm, thanks… I guess…” Harry’s brows were worriedly knit together while he digested Louis’ words.  
  
“Honestly, Harry. I do like you, a lot. Yeah, sure, perhaps you are irritating from time to time,” Louis grinned, “but after I allowed myself to look beyond the surface, I realised you weren’t the person I had pictured you to be after our first, albeit, encounter.”  
  
“Really?” Harry beamed, now visibly pleased.  
  
“Really.” Louis nodded and leaned to kiss him again raking his fingers through his soft curls. “And I just very recently realised why you got on my nerves so much back then.”

“Oh…” Harry breathed out. “Do I even want to know?”

“I was having a horrible day at work and then my friend, Liam, had to cancel our plans for lads night out at the last minute, so the party definitely wasn’t my first choice for the evening. And then, of course, when we arrived Niall ditched me almost immediately cause he had so many friends he wanted to catch up with, starting with his first love -- the buffet table.” Louis sighed. “I feel really stupid now but when I saw you standing there so festive looking, surrounded by people laughing and you looked so happy and enthusiastic as you passionately described something. Like you were just the opposite of how I felt that moment and I just wanted to scream at you ‘Shut the fuck up you bloody wanker!’”

“I sensed that about you that very moment you entered the room.” Harry interrupted him. “I know it sounds crazy and maybe delusional too, but I just felt it, I swear. At first, I just tried to locate where that tingling feeling on the back of my neck was coming from. And when I eventually spotted you, my world turned completely upside down and was never the same afterwards. I just knew.” Harry’s voice faded away.

“I wish I could say the same.” Louis sighed and gave Harry a small assuring squeeze. “I had tried to forget the whole evening, I don’t know, but today I remembered something I hadn’t even realised before.”

“And…?” Harry asked impatiently when Louis stopped again to get his words right.

“That there was this incident that made me loathe you even more.” The hurt flashed in Harry’s eyes and Louis rushed to explain more. “You remember when our eyes locked for a moment?”

“How could I forget.” Harry replied and his lips curved into a tiny smile. 

“You were so lovely, Harry. You still are. For a second I thought I felt something when our eyes met, and despite my mood -- and your hideous ugly Christmas sweater -- I even felt tempted to find you and maybe talk to you. But then this guy came up next to you and wrapped his arms around your waist… I saw in your eyes that you wanted to squirm away from his touch but then you just let it happen, despite how you felt and I just thought ‘well, so much for that’ and walked away.”

“He was my boyfriend, you know.” Harry explained smiling weakly. Then he paused for a second before pondered aloud “Do you think things would have gone differently if we had talked that night?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. But I doubt it. And does it really matter after all? We can’t change the past even if we wanted to.” 

“Yeah, I know. But I still think about it every now and then.” Harry shrugged.

“Can I do anything to make it go away?” Louis asked softly.

 “Maybe if I kiss you here….” Louis pressed his lips on Harry’s cheek.  

“Or here.” His lips touched the corner of Harry’s lips. “Or here…” Louis mumbled against his mouth while his thumbs caressed Harry’s cheeks.

Harry moaned quietly under his touch. He let his fingertips press against the back of Louis’ head, his thumbs resting near his ears and pulled Louis closer to deepen their kiss. As their soft kisses dissolved into a nasty mess, their hands were beginning to explore; roaming over each other’s bodies and removing items of clothing piece by piece until they were naked on the bed. Their breathing increased when their bodies collided for the first time and their hard cocks were finally getting some much-needed friction when Harry’s lean body caged Louis’ smaller one against the bed. He captured Louis’ hands and slid them slowly up along the bed until they were resting next to his ears.

Then Harry stopped. His fingers were still hooked around Louis’ wrists as he gave a questioning look, as if to ask if he was comfortable with this. Words seemed to be lost on their way out of his mouth, but fucking hell, this was the hottest thing Louis had ever experienced. And yet, Harry had just started. Louis closed his eyes to settle his wildly spinning mind. The grip around his wrists tightened for a second but the moment Louis popped his eyes open again, Harry loosened his grip.

“Is this ok?” He asked hoarsely.

“Yeah, yeah.” Louis croaked as an answer.

Immediately Harry leaned down to kiss Louis on the mouth, deeply to savour the feeling of being this close to Heaven. He pushed Louis’ hands a couple of inches higher, intensively studying Louis’ reaction. Louis hadn’t anticipated Harry being this assertive in bed, but he surely wasn’t complaining either. Surrendering control was something foreign to him, but it felt right in the moment.

Their kisses were getting sloppier until Harry’s lips began traveling south at an agonizingly slow pace. He was nibbling his way down his chest and made his way to his nipples. Harry sucked the right one into his mouth, gently rolling the hardened bud into his mouth before swirling his tongue around in circles and flicking it before making his way over to punish the other one.

Louis writhed around on the bed, bucking up his hips during the intense waves of pleasure that exploded through his body, sending shockwaves from his nipples straight down into his groin.    

Harry appeared satisfied with his work when Louis’ nipples were the perfect state of puffy because he continued to trail bites down his tummy that tickled and smarted at the same time. His hands gripped onto whatever flesh he could squeeze between his hands and when his fingers were barely touching Harry’s shoulder blades, Harry raised his gaze and clicked his tongue once giving an imperceptible nod towards Louis’ hands. Louis quickly removed his hands again and chewed on his lip. Just the sight of Harry’s dark, lust-filled eyes were enough to make him irrevocably horny. But that was just the beginning.

Harry trailed his nose down along the inside of his leg, where the inner thigh meets his groin and inhaled deeply, taking in the cloying, musky scent. Before Louis had time to process the intimacy of that, he felt Harry’s wet mouth on the head of his cock and a low groan escaped from his throat. He took the tip of the head into his mouth and sucked it slowly, letting his tongue explore and slip boldly under the foreskin and let it swirl around the head a few times. He tightened his lips around the head and pushed the foreskin down an inch just using his lips, paying special attention to the newly exposed frenulum and then let his cock slip out of his mouth. The dripping saliva and Louis’ precum was already making his lips glimmer in the dark room.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Louis moaned when Harry took it all in with one sudden move. Louis had no power to control his hips and groaned even louder when his cock hit the back of Harry’s throat for the first time due to his accidental thrust. Louis expected to hear Harry gag but it never came. Instead he held down Louis hips with his hands, letting his thumbs caress his sharp hip bones and then continued to suck like nothing even happened. His cheeks hollowed and tongue working its magic on Louis’ cock, his eyes looking intensely into Louis’ near fucked out expression.  
  
It had been way too much time since he had been touched that way by another man, and with Harry’s skilled mouth doing its job perfectly, Louis felt the heat pooling in his lower belly almost too soon. Harry noticed the change in Louis’ moans and let his cock fall out of his mouth and slap against his belly. He hoisted himself up until his face was hovering over Louis’. When he kissed him again, Louis was able to taste himself as Harry’s tongue was dancing with his own. Louis’ hands were pulling Harry closer and fingers raking through his unruly curls. 

“Do you want— umm—” 

“Fuck yeah!” Louis shouted without letting Harry even ask his question. No matter what he was asking, the answer would be ‘yes’ anyway. There was no way Louis was going to stop or let Harry stop right now. “In the loo bag—” Louis panted.

Harry kissed him one more time and swung himself up from the bed. While he was looking for the lube and condoms, Louis’ neglected, hard as a rock dick was screaming to be touched. So when he wrapped his hand around it, the simple gesture felt amazing.

“Stop.” Louis swallowed hard when he heard Harry’s sharp voice command from the other side of the room and quickly moved his hand away. He saw Harry smirk approvingly when he approached the bed and tossed the items he was carrying in his hands on it before climbing back onto the bed. Louis licked his lips as he saw Harry’s massive cock fully for the first time in its swinging glory. He had absolutely felt it before but seeing it in front of him, fat and dark made the lust course through his body again. As if it had even faded in the first place.

“Is this a good position?” He asked when Louis was lying on the bed, knees bent open slightly and Harry kneeling between them.

“Yeah.” Louis breathed out and watched as Harry took the small bottle of lube and clicked the cap open. He squirted it on his fingertips and rubbed them together to coat his fingers with it. With his other hand he took hold of Louis’ still glistening length and gave it a few short but firm tugs that made him moan wantonly.

Harry let his lubed finger trail down from the base of his cock and across his balls. He gave them a gentle roll and squeeze on his way to Louis’ eagerly awaiting hole. Louis was squirming impatiently under his touch and he was sure he would explode any second, if not by coming, then in frustration when Harry took an eternity to brush along his opening. When he pressed the pad of his index finger against it, Louis was sure he would start crying with relief even if the torture was just the beginning of a blissful and memorable night.

Fortunately, this torture was pure pleasure. Harry had slim, skilled fingers and he wasn’t afraid to use them. Once he had sufficiently circled the area around Louis’ hole, he started to push in. The stretch felt amazing but it still made Louis gasp aloud. Harry immediately stopped and held his finger still until Louis begged him to continue. It had been awhile but as soon as the pressure started to ease Louis wondered why he didn’t do this more often. After about two seconds of Harry’s slim finger stretching him wide with every twirl, he began to feel the sucking sensation on his left ball and flicking it gently with the tip of his tongue.

Harry lifted his head and Louis saw sweat pearling across his forehead, pupils dark and dilated. Harry wrapped a hand around his own base and gave it a little squeeze. If this had felt amazing for Louis, Harry seemed to be on cloud nine. “More, Harry, please.” Louis begged.

Harry took his request further and furtively placed the tip of his tongue against the base of his finger where it was being swallowed up by Louis’ hole. He tentatively licked around the pink puckered skin and gently nibbled and sucked around the outer ring of muscle.

“Fuck!” Louis screamed gripping behind his knees and pulling them back towards his chest. Once he got an appetite for the combination of Harry’s fingers and his mouth, nothing seemed to be enough. “More, more fingers too.” Louis commanded between his moans, and this time Harry didn’t question it, just added a second finger in with the first.

His fingers scissored and twirled inside him and every now and then they brushed over Louis’ prostate, making him curse and moan even more. Finally, after three digits fully in, along with the tip of his pinky finger, Harry seemed to be happy with the result and gently pulled his fingers out, he pushed his thumb back in and pressed down onto his hole in an effort to stretch it further and to see with his own eyes that Louis was stretched as much as he could be and gave a final lick and suck on his rim, moaning in delight.

Louis patted around the bedding to find the condom and once he located it he tore it open. Harry crawled up onto Louis’ torso and let Louis slip the condom onto his shaft. It was the first proper amount friction Harry got for his dick and Louis was sure he was going to pass out, judging by how loud his moan was.

“Fuck.” He cursed again when he coated his hardness with a generous amount of lube.

“Hurry!” Louis panted impatiently.

Harry kneeled between Louis’ legs. He leaned forward until his torso was aligned with Louis’ and the tip of his cock was already poking Louis’ entrance waiting for permission to enter. Louis had no patience anymore and grabbed Harry’s arse cheeks, effectively pulling him closer. Harry seemed to understand and slowly started to pump his way in. With Louis’ encouragement, Harry didn’t stop until he was in to the hilt and stopping to give them both time to adapt to the intense pressure, holding his body completely still. It didn’t stop him from kissing Louis though.

Their kiss started with gentle pecks on the lips but got deeper and more intense very quickly. Effortlessly their kisses segued to the rolling moves of Harry’s hips. His thrusts were slow and tentative at first, but his pace was speeding up gradually. His girth was perfect to stretch Louis enough without making him feel uncomfortable and now the sharp snaps of his hips had found the right angle to hit Louis’ spot with almost every thrust.

The moans were filling the room as they were reaching their release at a punishing pace. Harry bent Louis’ knees back up to get even deeper and they both looked down to watch as his cock pummeled in and out of Louis’ hole and that was all they needed. What seemed like a far away sound in the distance, Louis heard his own scream as he threw his head back down onto the pillow, making his back arch and shoot his load all over his belly. He was still seeing the fireworks behind his closed eyelids as he panted heavily before Harry grunted long and loud and then slumped down onto Louis’ chest, burying his face in his neck as he tried to catch his breath.

”Fuuuuuuuck.” He mumbled against Louis neck when their breath was starting to even out and Louis’ heart wasn’t about to bounce out of his ribcage anymore. Harry kissed him and nuzzled on his pulse point once more before rolling off Louis. He snuggled closer and pulled the duvet over them.

  
”Hi.” Harry smiled bliss still visible in his gaze.  
  
”Hi.” Louis smiled back. ”That was nice.”  
  
”Just nice…?” Harry sounded almost offended.  
  
”It was amazing, Harry.” Louis assured him and kissed his forehead. That had been the best shag of his life and Louis swears, he still was seeing the fireworks in eyes.  
  
”But you just—”  
  
”Look, Harry!” Louis interrupted him after realising he actually saw colours. He pointed towards the sky which now seemed to be filled with flickering green flames.  
  
”Oh, shit!” Harry stared at the light-show, mirth in his eyes and Louis couldn’t deny that he was feeling any less amazed as well.     
  
The Northern lights were stunning. They just laid quietly in the bed and admired the wonderful force of nature. Louis had heard about them many times, seen pictures too, but this was the first time he was able to witness them up close and personal and no photos would ever do it justice.  
  
”Erm...Lou?  Erm just so I know...is this a one-time thing for you?” It was Harry who, after an eternity spoke again.  
  
”Of course not Haz. What makes you think so?” Louis hoisted himself up to rest on his elbows when he saw the anxious look on Harry’s face.  
  
”I don’t know.” Harry shrugged. ”But I’m happy if it isn’t.”  
  
They fell back into silence again until Harry suddenly grinned.  
  
”What?” Louis asked.  
  
”I just realised I was right all along.” Harry replied vaguely.  
  
”Alright, I’ll bite. Care to elaborate?”  
  
”I just proved we met the real Santa.” Harry answered happily.  
  
Louis laughed, ”Ok. And why is that?” Maybe Louis liked the guy, a lot, but sometimes he did talk some shit.    
  
”Because my wish already came true.” Harry smiled, and something warm flickered inside Louis when he heard his answer.  
  
“Yeah?” Louis asked softly turning his gaze towards Harry.  
  
“Yeah.” Harry confirmed his question by adorning his face with a fond smile. Louis tightened his grip around other lad and spooned into him a little bit closer from behind, making Harry emit a satisfied sigh. Louis leaned down an inch to kiss the top of his shoulder and he was positive he could hear Harry purring like a happy little kitten against him.  
  
The aurora borealis danced across the dark sky, colouring it with flaming colours of green and blue while they laid on the bed watching the spectacle unfold, and filled with the feeling that they were on the brink of something new and exciting together.

If someone had asked him to describe how he felt right now, it would have been just a simple ‘happy’. Because he was happy. He, who never really believed in everlasting love, was starting to believe in it.  
  
Maybe miracles actually do happen?  
  
Maybe Louis was also ready to admit there was something good about Christmas, too. Odds were he was never going to turn into a full fledged Christmasphile like Harry was, but maybe, after all, there was a chance he liked Christmas a tiny bit more now than he had ever liked it before.

Who knows? Maybe all he needed was the right person next to him, with him.  
  
And a pinch of Lapland magic. 

**Day 4**

Louis was going to murder Niall. He hadn’t bothered to reply to any of Louis’ countless messages over the last three days; excluding that one lousy winking emoji. But now that he was already sitting on the plane — and on the same flight back to London with Harry — he conveniently decided to remember Louis’ existence.

Louis read the message, then briefly closed his eyes only to read the text again. Yep, it was still there, arrogance oozing out from those belated words. It was easy to picture a smirking Niall tapping out his response while lounging in his recliner like the smug fuck he was awaiting Louis’ reply.

As if he was going to send it to him now. Later he might even give a sloppy kiss to his forehead but for now, it was only fitting that he got a taste of his own medicine and enjoy the radio silence.

”What?” Harry asked curiously. 

”Have you talked to Niall recently?”

”No. Why?”

Louis showed the message to Harry who immediately burst out into a joyful cackle. Laughter was trying to bubble out from Louis’ lips too but stubborn as he was, he didn’t allow himself to let it out. But the big smile on his face told another story.

”I hate him.” Louis mumbled when he switched his phone to flight mode.

”No, you don’t.” Harry said happily reached to take Louis’ hand into his own and added contemplatively. ”We could buy him flowers.”

”And inflate his ego even more?” Louis huffed knowing Harry was already planning what kind of flowers they would give Niall. Louis sighed defeatedly, closing his eyes and resting against Harry’s shoulder. He really could take a nap now. 

Before he put the phone back into his pocket, he glanced back down to simple text from a simple man; and exactly what he’d expect from the guy who tried to pimp out his friends by playing matchmaker.  

_”You’re welcome.”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked the fic! 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always welcome. But when leaving constructive feedback, please, choose your words kindly.


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